Amado Avendano, editor was symbol of Zapatista uprising

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico -- Amado Avendano, a journalist and activist who became a symbol of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, died of a brain hemorrhage Thursday, his son said. He was 65.

Mr. Avendano was hospitalized Monday after suffering a stroke that left him in a coma.

He cofounded the newspaper El Tiempo, which began publishing in San Cristobal in February 1968.

Mr. Avendano developed a reputation among friends and foes alike as an investigative journalist who was not afraid to expose government corruption and the exploitation of Chiapas's Indian population.

Under intense criticism from the state government, which leaned on advertisers to stop running ads in the paper, El Tiempo closed in 1980. Mr. Avendano then became editor of a new daily, El Diario de Hoy.

In the last years of his life, he served as editor and chief reporter of "La Foja Coleta," a two-page daily that harshly criticized Chiapas State's elected officials.

Mr. Avendano was best known in Mexico for his unsuccessful run for Chiapas governor in 1994 with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.